Driving Change: Insights from the 2024 Lifesavers Conference

Anthony Lam, NTSB Transportation Safety Specialist, Office of Safety Recommendations and Communications

Attendees stepped into the world of road safety innovation and collaboration at last week’s Lifesavers Conference 2024 in Denver, Colorado. Each year, experts, advocates, and policymakers convene at Lifesavers to tackle pressing issues shaping the future of safer roadways. From combating impaired driving to ensuring equitable access to cutting-edge vehicle technology, NTSB staff presented and moderated a variety of workshops that offered invaluable insights and strategies for creating a safer tomorrow.

NTSB staff at 2024 Lifesavers Conference exhibit booth

NTSB Transportation Research Analyst Dr. Ryan Smith’s presentation, “The Oral Fluids Factor: Roadside & Evidential Testing to Reduce Drug-impaired Driving,” shed light on the rising interest in using oral fluid testing in roadside and evidential testing for drug impairment. With the landscape of cannabis legalization evolving and concerns about drugged driving escalating, the timing couldn’t be more crucial. Attendees gained insights into the nuances between preliminary and evidential testing, the mechanics of roadside testing, and the outcomes from states already implementing oral fluid testing. Discussions encompassed emerging challenges such as detecting novel drugs, ongoing research, and legal hurdles faced by states.

In 2022, we released a safety research report titled, Alcohol, Other Drug, and Multiple Drug Use Among Drivers, which found oral fluid is a valuable—but underused—biological specimen for detecting drug use by drivers. The report also recommended states modify their impaired-driving laws, if they have not already, to allow for oral fluid drug testing. Smith pointed this out in his presentation, adding, “It [oral fluid testing] can play a key role in supporting the enforcement of impaired-driving laws.”

Dr. Ryan Smith, Transportation Research Analyst, Office of Research and Engineering

Smith also organized and moderated the session, “Brave New World in Cannabis Detection,” which brought together leading-edge researchers in the field of cannabis detection. Cannabis impairment is a critical issue, and researchers discussed novel ways that cannabis use can be detected in drivers. In his opening remarks, Smith stated: “More than half of the US population now lives in a state where cannabis has been legalized. Recent NTSB research demonstrates the high prevalence of cannabis use among drivers, second in prevalence only to alcohol. Effective methods for detecting signs of cannabis impairment are critical for getting impaired drivers off our nation’s roadways.”

NTSB Office of Highway Safety Program Manager Ellen Lee gave a presentation on the dangers of speeding titled, “Not so Fast & Furious – Channeling Our Energy to Prevent Speed-related Fatalities,” which highlighted the urgent need to address speed-related fatalities through a comprehensive approach. Lee talked about the NTSB’s recent recommendations from our investigation of a crash in North Las Vegas, Nevada, where speeding and speeding recidivism were key.

Ellen Lee, Program Manager, Office of Highway Safety

Lee emphasized our findings that the driver in the crash was impaired and had received seven recent speeding offenses in the 5 years before the crash. “Despite repeated law enforcement actions, the driver’s record was inaccurate (showing only one speeding violation) and local courts treated this driver as a new offender for each violation,” Lee said.

Drawing from NTSB crash investigations and real-world examples, attendees learned about effective countermeasures and community engagement strategies. From leveraging data insights to advocating for vehicle safety technologies and infrastructure enhancements, the workshop underscored the importance of collaboration to curb excessive speed and protect lives on the road.

NTSB Safety Advocate Leah Walton moderated a thought-provoking discussion in her session, “A Safe System Approach to Address Impaired Driving” exploring where and how impaired driving fits into the five pillars of the Safe System Approach. Walton and her panel explored the multifaceted challenges posed by impaired driving, particularly concerning polysubstance impairment. Attendees gained a deeper understanding of the prevalence and risks associated with this behavior, along with potential policy interventions and enforcement strategies.

Leah Walton, Safety Advocate, Office of Safety Recommendations and Communications

In Walton’s opening remarks, she emphasized, “We cannot have a safe system while impaired driving is killing over 13,000 people a year. To achieve zero fatalities, we must expand our view of impaired-driving prevention through the Safe System lens.” With an emphasis on partnership-building at both the state and national levels, the workshop provided a roadmap for stakeholders to tackle impaired driving head-on and enhance road safety.

Stephanie Shaw, NTSB Management Analysis Officer, moderated the session, “Safety for All: How Vehicle Technology Addresses Underserved Populations.” Exploring design considerations, benefits, and challenges, attendees learned ways to extend these advancements to underserved populations. Shaw emphasized the importance of building a system that guarantees safe transportation for all who use it, regardless of socioeconomic status or mode of travel, whether it be personal vehicle, bike, walking, rolling, hailing a rideshare or an autonomous shuttle service, or taking public transportation. This sentiment encapsulated the overarching theme of inclusivity and accessibility discussed throughout the workshop.

Stephanie Shaw, Management Analysis Officer, Office of Railroad, Pipeline, and Hazardous Materials Investigations

The Lifesavers Conference serves as a catalyst for meaningful dialogue and collaboration in advancing road safety initiatives. By harnessing innovation, data-driven approaches, and community engagement, attendees are empowered to drive tangible change and create safer roads for everyone. We hope to continue these important dialogues at next year’s Lifesavers Conference in Long Beach, California!

Traffic Safety Through a Public Health Lens

By Sophia Peerzada, Safety Advocate

On March 28th, I moderated a webinar titled “Traffic Safety Through a Public Health Lens.” This joint effort between the NTSB and the American Public Health Association (APHA) ahead of National Public Health Week highlighted traffic safety as a public health issue.

This topic is very important to me as a transportation safety advocate with a degree in public health. When I was studying for my Master of Public Health degree at the University of South Florida, I was the only student in my program (that I knew of) who was interested in traffic safety. I was motivated by the Tampa Bay region’s regrettably high rates of traffic-related fatalities, and the perceptible imbalance of safety interventions along socioeconomic lines. I also knew the statistics nationwide: each year, 43,000 people die on US roadways. I thought, of course this is a public health issue—people are getting hurt and dying on our roads each day!  

Since joining the NTSB in November 2023, I have had the pleasure of meeting folks who bring a public health mindset to transportation safety. In fact, the NTSB itself plays a significant role in public health by identifying transportation safety issues and issuing recommendations to make travel safer for the public.

Prior to the webinar, I connected with former NTSB Vice Chair T. Bella Dinh-Zarr, who notably referred to traffic fatalities as an “epidemic on wheels.” Of course, I was thrilled when Dr. Dinh-Zarr and public health colleagues Dr. Kathleen Carlson, Dr. David Ederer, and Dr. Mighty Fine agreed to be panelists on this first-of-its-kind webinar.

Each panelist brought an invaluable perspective to the conversation.

Dr. Carlson, a professor of epidemiology at the Oregon Health and Science University-Portland State University School of Public Health and core investigator at the Portland VA, opened the event with a review of injury epidemiology. She explained that “public health takes a scientific approach to a public health problem” as it seeks to identify the problem’s cause and develop strategies for preventing it from happening again.

Dr. Ederer, an epidemiologist at the CDC’s Physical Activity and Health Branch, followed with a presentation on the Safe Systems Pyramid and how public health principles can be applied to engineering. His presentation underscored the need to apply traffic safety interventions systematically to improve population health.

Dr. Dinh-Zarr, Senior Advisor at FIA Foundation and the Traffic Injury Research Foundation, built upon Dr. Carlson’s and Dr. Ederer’s presentations by providing concrete examples of how the public health lens has been applied to traffic safety efforts. She highlighted the NTSB’s investigation process as an example of taking a public health approach to preventing the recurrence of traffic-related injuries and fatalities.

Finally, Dr. Fine, associate executive director of the APHA’s Division of Public Health Policy & Practice, rounded out the panel by emphasizing the need to apply a health equity perspective to all traffic safety efforts. He urged traffic safety practitioners to ensure that interventions are inclusive, accessible, and culturally relevant.

Overall, it was a wonderful and much-needed discussion that I am certain each attendee walked away from having learned something new. Dr. Ederer said it best in his presentation: “Public health is a way of describing and solving problems.” Given that, I think all of us in the traffic safety space are public health practitioners.

You can view the full webinar recording here: https://youtu.be/DMNxSFNANeI?si=FDR2BhF6vZXdJDut..

NTSB at Safe Mobility

By NTSB Safety Advocacy Division

Last week, NTSB Board Member Thomas Chapman and agency staff spoke at the Safe Mobility Conference, hosted by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety in collaboration with the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Attendees came from throughout government, industry, academia, the research community, advocacy, and other key stakeholder groups. Students and professionals alike were welcome.

The NTSB delegation discussed the agency’s investigations, recommendations, and experiences advocating for traffic safety improvements. In the closing plenary, Member Chapman capped off the NTSB’s presentations, discussing how to learn from NTSB investigations to turn the vision of zero traffic deaths into reality.

Amplifying Victims’ Voices

NTSB Chief of Safety Advocacy Nicholas Worrell set the tone with opening remarks, and Dr. Ryan Smith, of NTSB’s Office of Research and Engineering, led the discussion that followed about incorporating testimonials from victims of traffic crashes into transportation safety campaigns.

Worrell highlighted successes from both the aviation and road safety worlds, and Smith encouraged victim advocates and researchers to explore how the advocacy and research communities can more effectively work together to improve transportation safety. Both focused on the role and importance of firsthand stories in raising awareness, creating political will and public demand for change, and changing driver behavior.

Safe Speeds for a Safe Transportation System

NTSB Senior Advisor Ivan Cheung updated conference attendees regarding progress on safety recommendations issued from our 2017 speeding report. Speeding is about as prevalent as alcohol in fatal crashes, and the NTSB is committed to finding solutions.

“Speeding increases the likelihood of being involved in a crash and intensifies the severity of injuries sustained by all road users in a crash. Slow down—your life or the life of your loved ones depend on it, the lives of shared road users depends on it,” Cheung told attendees.

Building a Healthy Traffic Safety Culture

NTSB Safety Advocate Bryan Delaney presented on engaging youth and teen drivers in roadway safety. Delaney explained the role of mentorship and advocacy in bringing youth into traffic safety initiatives and creating a positive youth traffic safety culture.

“Engaging youth and teen drivers in traffic safety efforts will increase the effectiveness of interventions,” Delaney said. “Put youth at the head of the table, not in the seat to the side, and they engage. Empowerment leads to ownership.”

Member Chapman: Moving from Vision to Reality

During the closing plenary, Member Thomas Chapman discussed NTSB investigations, recommendations, and positions. He stressed that attendees could learn from NTSB investigations in all modes to turn the vision of zero traffic deaths into reality.

“I am a big believer in the Safe System approach,” Member Chapman said.

Later, he described new and reiterated NTSB recommendations to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) springing from crashes in Avenal, California, and North Las Vegas, Nevada. We called on to NHTSA to:

• require all new vehicles be equipped with passive vehicle-integrated alcohol impairment detection systems and/or advanced driver monitoring systems;
• incentivize adoption of intelligent speed assistance systems that would prevent speed-related crashes;
• require, as standard equipment in all new vehicles, intelligent speed assistance systems that, at a minimum, warn the driver when the vehicle exceeds the speed limit;
• develop guidelines to assist states in implementing pilot intelligent speed assistance interlock programs for high-risk drivers who speed.

The conference boasted 3 interactive workshops and 3 plenary sessions, as well as 8 technical sessions featuring experts in topics such as the Safe System approach, traffic safety culture, and more. Attendees had opportunities to network, as well as to learn from new traffic safety research with a goal of moving the needle on road safety.

NTSB Advocacy Connects with the Community on Prince George’s County, MD Listening Tour

By Nicholas Worrell,
Chief, Safety Advocacy Division
NTSB Office of Safety Recommendations and Communications

Recently, members of the Prince George’s County, Maryland, government reached out to the NTSB Safety Advocacy Division to participate in a week of public safety community meetings.

The goal of this countywide listening tour was to learn about constituents’ concerns surrounding public safety and health. County officials called on the NTSB because of our advocacy in road safety and the worrying trends they’ve seen in the county’s road fatalities. In these sessions, community members identified health, human services, and public safety concerns and worked toward solutions.

County Government to Residents: We’re Listening

To gather a diverse perspectives, three events took place over the course of a week. Safety Advocate Leah Walton and I participated as facilitators to capture feedback and lead discussions on traffic safety concerns. Although very similar concerns surfaced in each event, each segment of the county had its own perspective.

Themes that emerged in all sessions were:

• Traffic safety
• Crime
• Youth engagement
• Mental health/homelessness

An NTSB presence helped give the traffic safety topic a seat at the table. Focusing on traffic safety concerns, Leah and I were able to provide a deeper dive into road safety issues. We discussed the road fatality statistics; shared NTSB safety recommendations around setting speeds, distraction, and impaired driving; and directed folks to NTSB.gov for more information. What was great about the sessions is that participants were not only able to share the problem areas in their community, but, through facilitation, they were also able to arrive at insights on several aspects of each issue, like the following:

• Root causes of the problems
• Effects of doing nothing
• Possible solutions
• Outcomes for those solutions

In traffic safety specifically, residents were concerned with:

• Lack of accessible and reliable public transportation
• Speeding
• Lack of enforcement
• Potholes
• Lack of speed cameras
• Lack of driver education
• Distractions
• Accountability
• Road infrastructure
• Impaired driving

Residents expressed concern that if the traffic safety problem wasn’t addressed, fatalities, insurance rates, and economic cost (including lost wages) would all continue to increase. They urged government officials to assess speed cameras and other traffic control devices, improve and repair road infrastructure, increase sobriety checkpoints, and enhance parking enforcement. Residents envisioned these improvements leading to safer citizens, improved mortality rates, and reduced crashes, injuries, and fatalities.

The energized exchanges that occurred during these local listening sessions showed us that the NTSB’s traffic safety concerns align with those of the local community. It was advocacy at its best, and proved the maxim, “All advocacy is local.”

The Advocate’s Takeaway

Advocates know that to connect with the community, to inspire citizens to act as advocates, they must begin by hearing the community’s voice.

To us, this meant that facilitating these sessions was our chance to hear and learn this community’s language. We knew that if we, authentically, put them first, we could not only see the problem through their eyes, but we could also see them as part of the solution. This brought to mind what Nelson Mandela famously said: “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.”

Through these community events, the NTSB was able to provide valuable information about traffic safety statistics, potential solutions, and behavior changes that the participants could not only implement themselves, but could advocate to their family, friends, neighbors, and other community members. In short, in these sessions, participants became safety messengers as much as community leaders providing feedback to their county leaders.

Ultimately, this is the goal of the NTSB Safety Advocacy team—to inspire behavior change, to improve safety, and to motivate individuals to become community advocates for our recommendations and safety improvements.

Thank you to Councilmember Wanika Fisher, Chair of the County’s Health, Human Services, and Public Safety Committee; Committee Vice Chair Sydney J. Harrison; and County Council Member Calvin S. Hawkins for inviting us to take part in these valuable listening sessions, to learn from and educate citizens, and to help further transportation safety.

Episode 57: Hazardous Materials Branch

In this episode of Behind-the-Scene @NTSB we talk with NTSB Office of Railroad, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Investigations’ HazMat Branch about their work to improve transportation safety.

To read some of the investigative reports discussed in this episode, visit our webpage.

Subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast platform.

And find more ways to listen here: https://www.blubrry.com/behind_the_scene_ntsb/.